GOAT STYLE BIKE JAM

GOAT STYLE BIKE JAM – CRESTON B.C. May 2008

The van loaded with bikes and all our crap Sha and I headed on the road. We saw parts of Washington and went via the Sasquatch music festival back to B.C. where we stumbled upon Rossland – there were some cool dirt jumps that the locals let me ride and a sick launch into mulch pit to get gnarly on.

The next stop was Nelson where we did a shuttle run with a local company and were hosted by Charles from Gericks who made sure we didn’t get lost. We rode Highballer, Placenta, Wake’n’Bake and Skiiers right and immediately knew that Nelson is almost as cool as our hometown Nelson in New Zealand. The next day we rode Shitaker – an amazing off the map new trail made by the locals featuring burly drops, hips and my favourite – riding down a burnt tree.

Then it was off to Creston. We pulled up in the carpark next to the recreation centre where the event was being held and I was very much looking foward to riding the sick course that they built especially for the event. We camped out by a river just out of town and rolled in the next day to get some practice in. The comp itself was split into two days – the first was the qualifier. There were lots of local riders and also shredders like Geoff Gulevich, Phil Sundbaum, Casey Groves, Dustin Greenall and my man Gareth Dyer.

There were four different categories depending on age and level of riding so it was cool to give some new up and comers as well as younger dudes a chance to ride a wicked course. The qualifiers drew a big crowd who were wowed by the talent. Fifteen of us made it to the finals and I was stoked to be able to ride on. Unfortunately for us all, the weather was not in our favour and the day of the comp was rained off. We split the prize money and headed back to Whistler in one hit – a long 12 hour drive.

--Kelly McGarry

HOLLA FOR YA DOLLA JAM

ATOMLAB HOLLA FOR YA DOLLA JAM CALIFORNIA APRIL 2008
I moved from Queenstown NZ to Whistler, Canada in April ’08 to land in the freezing cold with snow still lying on the ground. I wasn’t impressed with the snow so I jetted off to Cali-for-ni-yay for the Atomlab Holla for Ya Dollar Jam in San Diego. Mike Flaherty from Atomlab picked me up from the airport and looked after me the whole weekend.

First day was spent at Clairmont Skate Park riding with the likes of Jo Perizo and JD Swuangen. Riding my mountain bike on a skate park was a fairly new thing for me but once I got the hang of it it was good times. The event itself was super fun and chill and Mike basically gave the riders cash if you did a good trick or line.

The second day was at Legacy Dirt Jumps, the dirt jumps were in a super cool location – carved into the side of a canyon and the heat was ridiculous. We got down to business and everyone was killing it, there were about twenty riders including one girl representing! I was stoked to 360 the first big left-hand hip and kick out some big no foot cans.

The third day was at the famous Home Avenue ditch – a drainage ditch where we rode street. The street heads were killing it on their turf and it was wicked to watch and shred with them. All in all it was a rad weekend but sadly I had to jump on a plane and go back to the knee deep snow.

Kelly McGarry.